GE ELECT 2

Gender and Society

UNIT 1 GENDER AND SEXUALITY AS A SOCIAL REALITY

Lesson 1  -  Sex, Gender and Sexuality

Introduction:
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What does it mean to be a male or a female, to be feminine or musculine, or to be a man
or woman? The human mind and body are so complex such that to answer this question, we
have to trace our journey from the moment we were born and go back to the journey we
humans have across the life span. 

First thing you need to understand is the complexities of defining and differentiating
sex,gender and sexuality. Having a clear grasp of these concepts is crucial since we will be
using these terms over and over again in succeeding discussions. Likewise, there are nuances
in the meanings of these terms, which have an implication on at which context we can
appropriately use them.

Moreover, as we start our discussion of gender and sexuality as social realities, we also
want to understand how a person’s gender is expressed from birth to adulthood. Our ultimate
goal is to foster understanding of the diversity of how humans experience and express their
sexuality.

SEX

Sex is the biological dimension of your gender and sexuality. Also referred to as
biological sex or physical sex, the term generally pertains to your identity depending on your
sexual anatomy and physiology--the parts of your body that are relevant to reproduction and
function of tese parts. Sex is typically determined by examining your genitals - these are
external organs that are associated with reproduction - the process or the ability to create
offspring.

Among humans, sex is often assigned at birth. If at birth, a child is categorized as male.
If a child is observed to have vagina, then the child is categorized as female. However, there
are cases when the baby’s genitals appear to be a conglomerate of male and female organs
such that it may be difficult to classify the baby’s sex without further examination.In the past, this
condition is referred to as hermaphroditism (from Hermes, a male Greek God and Aphrodite, a
female Greek Goddess). In modern times, the term intersexuality is used to refer to this
phenomenon. Hermaphroditism or intersexuality is a naturally occurring variation in humans and
animals according to American Psychological Association.

GENDER

Humans are meaning-making organisms. Our ability for higher order thinking and our
tendency to create social norms, allow us to attach social and cultural meanings to things,
including our sex. For example, males are typically expected to be masculine and females  are
expected to be feminine. Once parents are aware of their child’s sex (male or female) during
birth or through prenatal procedures such as ultrasound, they automatically attach social and
cultural meanings to their child’s sex and in doing so, they already set an expectation in terms of
how their child should behave and how they should treat their child. This social dimension of
one’s sexuality is referred to as gender. 

There are many ways through which gender is manifested. As soon as a new baby
arrives in the family, adults surrounding the baby manifests their social interpretation of the
baby’s sex by the colors assigned to the baby. For example, it is common for families to buy
blue apparels and toys when the baby is a male, as the color blue is associated with boyhood.
Female babies are often assigned the color pink, such that families would buy clothes and toys
that are color pink because the color is associated with girlhood. Remarkably, the moment a
baby is born, the name, toys and apparels are picked by parents and relatives based on their
interpretation of the baby’s sex.

Throughout childhood and adolescence, this assignment becomes more complex as the
expectations go beyond the kind of clothes worn, but also in terms of how the person must or
must not behave. There are set of behaviors that all female individuals must follow and so with
the male individuals, and all are expected to stick to these behaviors that are aligned with their
biological sex. This phenomenon of determining the normality of a behavior based on whether it
conforms or not to the expectations relative to one’s biological sex is referred to as
heteronormativity. In the Filipino culture, girls are expected to have certain characteristics of
being gentle, caring and loving while boys are encouraged to be strong, rough and assertive.
These expectations also extend to how men and women are expected to behave, the college
courses they take and the jobs they apply to.

Gender Identity
  One important aspect of our gender is our sense of who we are. Do we see and
experience ourselves as a man, a woman or neither. This refers to our gender identity.
Typically, males are comfortable identifying as a man and females are comfortable identifying
as a woman.

However, there are cases wherein a person’s not align with one’s gender identity.
People with this experience are referred to as transgenders, such as male who does not feel
comfortable identifying as a man (transgender woman) or a female who is not comfortable
identifyin as a woman (transgender man). Transgender people may undergo gender
reassignment surgery to align their physical characteristics to their gender identity. However,
due to many factors such as belief systems, culture and economics, some do not opt for
surgery.